Got my 2012 WRX last year. It wasn't a few weeks until I had cracked the air dam on a high curb. One usually, on a regular car, just rolls up to a curb until the front wheels hit it, but this car has the air dam way out front, so the wheels can't lift it over obstacles before it contacts them. The air dam is 7.25" off the ground, not enough to clear all the common obstacles such as curbs, semi-truck "gators" laying in the lane of travel, etc.
Then, a couple months later, doing a U-turn on a dirt road high in some Arizona mountains, the air dam contacted a hill of dirt and was torn off. $1000.
After that was repaired, a couple more months passed, and another rise in a dirt road back in Virginia contacted the air dam. Another $1000.
I'm going driving back to Arizona, from Virginia, at the end of May. I'll probably do all the driving during the day, so I can see debris in the road, such as truck tire treads, dead animals, etc. and hope I can swerve. If I can't, it'll prolly be another $1000.
Not that the car hasn't had regular problems besides the air dam. It has.
A faulty brake light switch had been causing problems since about 2000 miles. It finally failed completely around 32,000 miles, so I took it in to the dealer, where it was throwing codes for the brake light switch, which was fixed, grudgingly, under warranty. Only took them 3 weeks to determine that they would fix it under warranty, order the part (why wasn't it in stock???) and schedule a repair.
The steering rack decided to start leaking around 20,000 miles. Again, a big hassle with the warranty. They made me pay $100 for that repair, that would have otherwise been $1200 - $1400.
Finally, since the warranty has expired, the traction control and hill-holder warming lights have illuminated on the dash. I took it to the AAA service center in Fredericksburg, Va., who said it was throwing codes for the "steering wheel angle sensor." The AAA mechanic said it was a 2 hour remove and replace for that sensor, as it is seriously buried in the steering column. Sooo... since I know how to control skids and hold hills, those 2 lights will be forever illuminated on my dash, because the AAA mechanic said it would likely be $600 - $1400 to get that fixed. Researching the internet, someone else paid $680 to get the SWAS replaced. Not happening.
With any luck, I _may_ be able to hold the air dam repairs down to 1 a year, but I typically drive about 35K miles a year, so that's hard. Have to treat it special, parking far short of the parking lot bumpers and curbs, and doing sudden swerves on the highway to keep from hitting anything in the lane of travel. People on I-10 in Texas probably wondered "WTF?" when I changed lanes in a heartbeat last month, to avoid the truck tire gator in the lane of travel, but it was really tall and big, and would have shattered the air dam.
Just so's you know, if you want one of these things, its likely not to be cheap. They break a lot, and the air dam is a threat to one's wallet.